Continuing the initiative to reduce the cost of flight simulation implementation, a further three F22 projectors from Norway’s projectiondesign® have been supplied to Dutch-based technology manufacturer MPS for use in its latest FTSD (Flight Simulation Training Device) qualified Airbus A320 flight simulator.

MPS is based in Groenekan, Netherlands, MPS (Multi Pilot Simulations) and is the brainchild of the experienced aviation industry solution provider Dick Verburg. Fifteen years ago, Verburg set up EPST (European Pilot Selection & Training) as a centre of excellence in first-officer training – giving would-be pilots exactly the right kind of training and experience they need before joining a major airline. Through the careful screening of candidates and the precise tailoring of training programmes to evolving industry needs, EPST has a 100% success rate in placing successful trainees with airlines.

The inspiration for EPST – and subsequent creation of MPS and the co-operation with projectiondesign – came about when Dick’s own son was about to begin his pilot cadetship. “My son and I looked around for an FSTD that was up-to-the-minute in terms of both technical and industry requirements, and also accessible to Flight Training Organizations in terms of cost. Quite simply, there wasn’t one.”

A visionary in every sense, Dick Verburg decided that where no appropriate solution yet existed, it could be built from scratch. So he spent five years designing a hardware system and supporting software platform, with the goal of producing an FSTD with the lowest procurement and operating costs in its class. MPS designs all parts of the FSTD in-house, with its current fixed-base flight simulators being modelled after – and capable of being certified as – an Airbus A320 and Boeing B737-800W passenger aircrafts. In addition MPS manufactures a “generic” Jet simulator.

The standard MPS FSTD comes with a high-end RSI Visual Systems Raster XT4 image generator and a direct projection screen with a 200-degree by 30-degree horizontal field of view, while a more advanced version offers a collimated mirror display for enhanced realism.

Four FSTD’s are installed at EPST. One MPS FTSD Airbus A320 flight simulator, refurbished by MPS has now been installed at EPST’s headquarters in Utrecht. There is another based on a Boeing B737-800W design and using three projectiondesign F22 wqxga projectors; a third based on the same cockpit but with three F12 wuxga projectors; and a fourth simulator that is used as a procedural trainer which utilises a single projectiondesign F22 wuxga projector.

Commenting on the use of projectiondesign by MPS, Dick Verburg says: “When you are designing a flight simulator, you have to have absolute accuracy in everything you do and everything you use. For example, our ‘cockpits’ are dimensionally identical to the real thing down to the last millimetre, and even our oxygen masks are the same as you would fine in a real plane.

“To get an image that is realistic enough to match this authenticity, we turned to projectiondesign because of their reputation for colour accuracy, high brightness and contrast ratio, and their ability to supply us with sets of projectors that are calibrated and colour-matched at the factory. We have not been disappointed and are looking forward to supplying more FSTDs with projectiondesign hardware in the future.”

Gerben van den Berg, Regional Director, Benelux and CES Europe at projectiondesign says: “Civil aviation is a big growth market for us and is testament to being able to provide custom specific projectors to MPS for its ground-breaking flight simulation systems.”